ProgressNowAction targets Denver radio host Caldara
By: PoliticsWest1/24/2008
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- Jon Caldara
ProgressNowAction, a left-leaning advocacy group based in Denver, is promoting an online effort to pressure advertisers to stop supporting the KOA 850-AM radio show of Jon Caldara because Caldara used the term “bitch-slapped” on the air.
“The term itself is demeaning and offensive to women,” said Michael Huttner, executive director of ProgressNowAction. “It’s the kind of thing that minimizes the severity of domestic violence. We think it shouldn’t be used in any context.”
ProgressNowAction and Colorado Media Matters “must be working together to bring hyper-sensitivity to a new level,” Caldara said in an e-mail to PoliticsWest. “I am just thrilled to know that someone other than my mother is actually listening to my radio show.”
Caldara is also president of the Golden-based Independence Institute, a libertarian think tank.
Colorado Media Matters, which monitors the media and highlights what it terms “conservative misinformation,” posted on its Web site an audio clip and partial transcript of Caldara’s Jan. 21 interview with conservative gadfly Ann Coulter.
On the air, Caldara played a snippet of the Democratic candidate debate interaction between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in which Obama said, “I can’t tell who I’m running against sometimes,” a reference to Bill Clinton.
Caldara termed Obama’s response “a spectacular line” and goes on to ask Coulter, “Was it fair to say this woman got bitch-slapped tonight?”
Coulter replies yes.
The ProgressNowAction online statement, titled "Tell Jon Caldara's sponsors: don't pay for hate," was also e-mailed to 3,000 people, according to Huttner, who said they have received 250 responses.
“We also tried to ensure that women’s groups would be sure to see it,” he said.
In May, ProgressNowAction targeted another KOA 850-AM host, “Gunny Bob” Newman for remarks he made about Muslims. A Denver Post story at the time reported that “at least three metro-area businesses have asked radio station KOA-850 AM to pull their advertisements” from the show.
KOA is owned by Clear Channel Communications, which in the Colorado market also owns 760-AM "Progressive Talk" station, among others. Kris Olinger, a director of programming in Denver for Clear Channel, was not immediately available for comment on Thursday.
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Why doesn't Mr. Armstrong reveal his ties to Caldara?
Somewhat odd, isn't it, that Mr. Armstrong fails to disclose that he used to work for Caldara, at the Independence Institute? I wonder why? Could it be perhaps because then it would be even more obvious why he is trying to discredit the critic, ProgressNow, rather than answer the question of why it is acceptable for Caldara to use misogynistic terms when talking about women?
Bill Menezes
Editorial Director
Colorado Media Matters
It goes way beyond "bitch-slapped"
Jon Caldara has a well documented history of using the public airwaves irresponsibly, from his use of offensive speech (the term-bitch-slapped literally refers to how a pimp might assault a prostitute to keep her in line) to his frequent use of outright falsehoods to promote the points of view of himself and the Independence Institute. (More here)
In short, Caldara is a notorious serial misinformer who hides behind the mask of on-air clown while promoting public policy initiatives focused on attacking organized labor, reducing funding for public education and opposing health care reform in Colorado.
The real question is why his bosses at Clear Channel, Lee Larsen and Kris Olinger, believe that Caldara's approach represents a responsible use of the public airwaves. Perhaps Ms. Olinger or Mr. Larsen (or even Caldara) would like to speak in person to a domestic violence prevention group and explain why the use of terms such as "bitch-slapped" when applied to a verbal attack on a female, or "fiscal date rape" when applied to a political dispute about taxes, are appropriate and responsible ways of promoting opinion in the public debate.
Perhaps Caldara's advertisers such as Tom Shane would like to explain to his female customers why he believes it is appropriate for him to patronize a program whose host blithely promotes abusive terminology that specifically targets women.
These are the types of questions ProgressNow appears to have raised. Will Clear Channel answer?
Bill Menezes
Editorial Director
Colorado Media Matters
Hypocritical
I find it interesting that ProgressNow also used the term when describing the reaction to the Petraeus Report. Just more PC hypocritical fascism, but it is not suprising.
What About Westword, Boulder Weekly, and CSIndy?
As I write on my blog at FreeColorado.com:
If the people at ProgressNowAction are not a bunch of damned hypocrites, as I suspect they are, then they will also immediately demand that all advertisers with the left-leaning Westword withdraw their advertising dollars. For Westword has published the term "bitch-slap" not once, but twelve times (that I could find). Shouldn't ProgressNowAction display twelve times the outrage toward Westword? Or is it that Huttner and Wilburn [of ProgressNowAction] just hate Caldara, and they don't really care about the term "bitch-slap?" ...
It looks like ProgressNowAction is also going to have to put an end to the left-leaning Boulder Weekly (for which I used to write). That paper has published the term "bitch-slap" four times...
ProgressNowAction will also have to shut down the left-leaning Colorado Springs Independent, which also has published the term "bitch-slap" four times...
For details, read my complete post.
Now we know Jon Caldara is Gay
Jon Caldara is Gay. And he has a truly awful radio show. What straight man do you know that uses the term,"Bitch Slapped," on the air - do they (the straight guys) even know the term? Jon Caldara joins Mike Kaufman as another closeted Republican Gay man. Pathetic. And Ann Coulter, a truly offensive woman who uses her sexuality to push her politics is a campy fag hag. Mike Huttner has bigger fish to fry than Jon Caldara. This isn't worth his time.